The Hindu : Sport : Monika Devi issue: Manipur CM seeks CBI probe

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Monika Devi issue: Manipur CM seeks CBI probe

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Manipur Government has decided to move the Centre for a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the doping issue involving weightlifter Monika Devi.

At a hurriedly-called press conference here on Sunday, Manipur Chief Minister O. Ibobi Singh held the Sports Authority of India (SAI), National Dope Testing Laboratory and the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) responsible for shattering Monika’s dream of representing the country in the Olympic Games.

The Chief Minister said the probe would ensure that the “main culprits are booked so that the future of the Indian sports is saved from the clutches of the dirty politics of the authorities managing Indian sports.”

Clueless

Later, Monika spoke informally to the mediapersons. She said she was still clueless about what was going on. Having blamed the SAI and IOA for the fiasco, she claimed, “I asked the SAI for a test of my ‘B’ sample but they refused it. Now I have learnt that the SAI has cleared me of the doping charges.”

She said, “since my event is on August 13, I am still ready to go and compete.” Meanwhile, in Beijing, the IOA released a statement of the President of the International Weightlifting Federation Tamas Ajan in response to the IOA’s last-minute efforts to get Monika’s name included in the competition.

Mr. Ajan said, “according to the International Olympic Committee protocol, following the Technical Congress that took place on the 7th at 1500 hrs, it is not possible to insert, change or otherwise modify any athlete’s participation or any other data for the Olympic Games.”

Monika tested positive for an endogenous steroid in a test conducted at the NDTL following which the SAI forwarded the report to the Indian Weightlifting Federation. She was prevented from going to Beijing at the last moment.

The federation, which backed her throughout, is supposed to have held a hearing through a specially-constituted panel and cleared the Manipur lifter, though the details of the procedure adopted, the composition of the panel, the presence of any experts required in a case like this etc, have not been made known. Nor for that matter the grounds under which she had been cleared.

The federation has insisted that there was no doping charge made out against Monika, but it had replied to a letter from the SAI which had forwarded the laboratory report listing the details of the adverse analytical finding on her June 6 sample. Three subsequent tests only confirmed the initial finding of the NDTL.

The IOA which initially congratulated SAI for saving the country from embarrassment at the Olympics, resorted to a volte face as Sunday’s statement indicates. The IOA has now admitted that it made efforts to get Monika back into the Olympic entry list.

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